Pages

6.20.2012

Review Challenge #10—When I Was a Kid

Today we have another review challenge—so some people can catch up and others can have a nice little break, or do this challenge on someone else! (See the original challenge and some ideas of what to write about here.)

How are things different now from when you were a kid?

Since this is a review, go to the original challenge to see a list of possible topics that you can write about.

You can record things in general that were the norm when you were a kid, you can pick a certain age and talk about all the things then, you can even compare yourself at a certain age to a parent or grandparent and then to your kids. If you’ve already done this challenge, you can always go back and record it for someone else, or even record some of the things now and go back in 20 years and compare.

Here are a couple of ideas from two of our wonderful TIMC team members:

--------What Laura did:

Laura made this scrapbook page:

-------What Rachel did:

When I thought about my question, "How are things different than when you were a kid?", I decided to make a list to compare my childhood to my sons current life right now at age 10.

Then:

1. When I wanted to call someone, I would use our family white corded phone in the kitchen. We even had a little wooden "gossip bench" where the phone and phone book were kept.

2. When we played a family game, we would play a board game like "Life", "Memory" or "Go to the head of the class".

3. In elementary school I learned about computers by playing "Oregon Trail" and some fishing game on an old Apple computer. And we had old floppy disks and command codes to get games to work.

4. When we took long car rides or trips as a family; we would sing songs, look out the window, or read. We never dared to say we were bored.

5. I had never heard of a cell phone or texting.

6. When I had play time I would run around our back yard and play with bugs, sticks, tires, our farm animals-and use my imagination to play all kinds of games outside with my brother or sister. I was rarely inside the house unless it was winter time or bedtime.

7. For chores I was responsible for feeding our farm animals (cow, pigs, chickens, capons, sheep, cats, dogs, rabbits) especially my animals I was raising for 4-H projects, mowing several acres of grass on the riding mower, using the push lawn mower in between the fruit trees, keeping my room clean, cleaning the bathroom specially the toilet-to name a few.

8. When I was growing up I had 2 parents in the home who loved me; we lived on a farm in an Amish community; we homeschooled for 5 years then went to public school; we drove 45 minutes one way to go to church and the store; and our fun family activities involved 4-H trips and trips to the library.

Now:

1. When my son wants to call someone, he uses my smart (cell) phone. We don't even have a home phone!

2. When my son wants to play a family game, we play "specialty" board games like "Ticket to Ride" or Nintendo Wii Games on the TV.

3. In elementary school my son was learning how to do math games, art design stuff and talking about cool web sites like Build-a-bear and Facebook.

4. When we take any trip in the car, my son will complain he is bored and wants something to do like play on my cell phone. Most times I tell him to read or sing songs with me. He doesn't really like when I tell him to look out the window.

5. My son has his own cell phone and texts me when he’s at his dads house on the weekends to let me know he's okay. Now we text words like TTYL, LOL, Luv U.

6. My son likes to ride his bike, swim, play sports, play Wii/DS, or read during his play time. We have to limit his electronic gaming so he's not constantly asking to play.

7. For chores, my son helps with folding laundry, trash cans, attempting to keep his room clean and helping Dad watch his little brother during the day.

8. My son has had to grow up 8 years without a father in the home until I got remarried to a wonderful man; he has a lot of family and extended family who live close by within 20 minutes; we live within 5 minutes to school, library and shopping stores; and for fun outings he gets to go to the theater, baseball games, parks, library, shopping and scout/sports camps.